Latest News: Business
Pöyry awarded EPCM services assignments for sodium-chlorate plant in Brazil
Kemira Oyj (Helsinki; www.kemira.com) has awarded Pöyry Oyj (Vantaa, both Finland; www.poyry.fi) with assignments for EPCM (engineering, procurement and construction management) services for a sodium chlorate plant in Brazil. The EPCM assignments relate to the new sodium-chlorate plant that Kemira…
LyondellBasell to build U.S. Gulf Coast production plant for propylene oxide and tertiary butyl alcohol
LyondellBasell (Rotterdam, The Netherlands; www.lyondellbasell.com) has announced plans to build a world-scale plant on the U.S. Gulf Coast with a capacity of 900 million pounds per yr (~400,000 metric ton (m.t.)/yr) of propylene oxide (PO) and around 2 billion pounds…
Umicore acquires Ohio-based CP Chemicals Group
Umicore N.V. (Brussels, Belgium; www.umicore.com) has announced the acquisition of the business and assets of CP Chemicals Group, LP (Wickliffe, Ohio; www.cpchemicalsgroup.com). CP Chemicals is a refiner and recycler of cobalt- and nickel-containing secondary materials, such as superalloy scrap, and…
KBR awarded EPC contract for new HDPE facility in Texas
KBR Inc. (Houston; www.kbr.com) has been awarded a contract from Gemini HDPE LLC, a manufacturing joint venture between INEOS Olefins & Polymers USA (Ineos) and Sasol, to provide engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services for a new high-density polyethylene (HDPE)…
Gas-to-gasoline process makes commercial debut in Turkmenistan
A groundbreaking ceremony was held in Ovadan-Depe near the capital of Ashgabad in Turkmenistan to launch the construction of a major plant focused on the conversion of natural gas into synthetic gasoline. The plant will be based on Haldor Topsøe…
Tepid growth for global chemical production, ACC report says
The Global Chemical Production Regional Index (Global CPRI) from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com) rose 0.1% in July on a three-month-moving-average (3MMA) basis. The small gain indicates that “growth remained tepid at the start of the…
CB&I awarded contract for an on-purpose propylene plant in Poland
CB&I (The Woodlands, Tex.; www.cbi.com) has been awarded a contract by Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen S.A. (PKN) for the license and engineering design of a new on-purpose propylene production unit to be located in Plock, Poland. The unit will use…
AkzoNobel breaks ground on decorative paints plant in China
AkzoNobel N.V. (Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.akzonobel.com) today broke ground on its new decorative paints site in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. The facility is part of an investment in excess of €50 million to build manufacturing facilities for both powder coatings…
Saudi Aramco invests in Siluria Technologies
Siluria Technologies (San Francisco, Calif.; www.siluria.com) has announced the initial close of its Series D financing round. The round was led by Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures (SAEV), the venture investment subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, the world’s leading fully integrated energy…
ABB to divest its Full Services business to Nordic Capital
ABB (Zurich, Switzerland; www.abb.com) has signed an agreement to divest the ABB Full Service business to Nordic Capital for an undisclosed amount. The sale is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2014, subject to regulatory approval. The…